Hot Concerts On Cool Nights

Mike and I got free tickets to see Tim McGraw at an outside venue last night and it couldn't have been more perfect, the weather I mean. (wink wink)  Remember, we got free tickets, not good seats, so we stood along the fence along the walkway and we were able to see pretty good.  We had to stand up the whole time, but it was certainly worth it.  

These pictures were taken with my iPhone, so they aren't great. 

It was a good night, but I'm realizing I'm too old to stay out too late. We stayed until 10:30, got home at 11:00, ate a cheeseburger and went to bed at 11:30.  I felt like I had a hangover and the only thing I had to drink was a Coke Zero!  

Next is P!nk in December and I will take a good camera for that one! 

Rock On!  

DIY Glitter Frame Matting

I had some picture frames for Maggie's room and I just thought they were plain and I really didn't want to put an actual picture in them so, of course, I headed over to Pinterest to see what I could find.  I wanted to find something that was user and budget friend.  FINALLY!  I found it on Our Thrifty Ideas and I just knew I could do it!

So, I started off with the matting of the frame, spray adhesive, glossy clear spray paint and glitter.  I didn't want to buy Sugar Coating because I'm too cheap BUT I did find some glitter that would work just fine and the perfect color too!
 

I stripped the matting, sprayed the adhesive in sections, covered with glitter and kind of mashed on it to make it stick, made a huge mess on the back porch, then sprayed the clear coast adhesive once it dried for a few minutes. 

I didn't want to use a picture in the middle.  Maggie's bedding is black and white, so I found a Damask print online that I liked, printed it and stuck it in the middle and there you have it!  I think they turned out really good and they look great in her room!  

Hope you all have a blessed day! 

Almost There!!

Well I have done almost everything I need to do before my bypass surgery plan is submitted to my insurance company. I'm both excited and nervous, but I'm so ready to be a healthier me!

Right now I'm in vacation mode!  Leaving for a cruise at the end of the month and I'm so excited!  I'm excited for the kids a whole lot because this will be their first cruise AND we will be on one of the biggest ships Carnival has!  EXCITED isn't even the word to describe how I feel!

On another note, back in March, Sarah was in the Spring Beauty pageant and she did a great job.  She came in 5th place.  Well, I think she should have won, but whatever.  :-)

Her hair did so good!  I want to give a shout out to Tasha and Melanie's!

She did a wonderful job on Sarah's hair even when she wiggling around!

My little beauty.

One of my favorite pictures of her

She LOVED that she could do this with her dress.

Sarah with our friend Morgan

Our little family

Sarah with Maggie and cousins Ashleigh and Autumn.

Uncle Clay and Clay's girlfriend, Anna

Grandparents....my parents, Lynn and Gayle

Have a blessed day and until next time....

Bye Bye Gallbladder

In preparing for my gastric bypass surgery, I needed to have an endoscopy done so my surgeon could have an look at my gut before he won’t be able to anymore. I also had an ultrasound to see if I had gallstones because I’ve been having unexplained but suspected angry gallbladder attacks and my suspicion was right, so I was scheduled for gallbladder-ectomy (I made that up, obviously). Thank goodness I didn’t have to be at UAB at the crack of dawn and I was able to see the kids before they went off to school. My mother spent the night with us the night before to help us get the kids ready so we could leave the house on time. My mother is awesome by the way. I got there and checked in, went up to the 7th floor and waited for only 15 minutes or so and was called back to get ready. I got my gown on and those things are not just any hospital gown. You can hook up a hose to the gown and either blow cool air or warm air in your gown. How cool is that? Of course, I chose cool air because I was little hot.

So, after poking me 4-5 times in my hands, they finally got an IV started......or so they thought. I’m given some Vicodin in my IV, start talking about floating air biscuits, moved myself over to the operating table, the mask goes on, the lights look funny and I’m out....until......I wake up in recovery, my foot hurts, I’m wondering why, I have the oxygen tubes in my nose, which I hate, my oxygen saturation keeps dropping, I’m getting agitated very quickly, not feeling any pain in my belly, which is good, my foot still hurts, something is connected to it. I look down and there is an IV stuck in my foot. The nurse asks me if I remember waking during surgery and I said no and asked if I did and she said maybe but if you don’t remember, that’s good. She gives me some pain medicine to relax me because I’m getting pissy and that helps. Later I move in the second stage of recovery where they start removing all of my IVs. I find out that the IV in my hand quit working, which is why they asked me if I remember waking up in surgery. I’m not freaked out by this at all, I think it’s a little humorous. I had a approximately 12 sticks where they were trying to find a good vein. They even tried to give me an IV where my shunt tube runs down the side of my neck. It looks like a good vein, but it’s not. I think they quickly figured that out. I’m sure they were freaking out trying to find another place to put that IV.

I CANNOT wait to talk to my surgeon next week! 

I was finally able to get changed and go home and I actually didn’t feel bad, just really tired and ready to get home and have some spaghetti that Mom had made and see my sweet babies. I wanted them to know Mommy was okay! They were real curious and wanted to see the boo boos on my belly right after I got home. I had some dinner, took some pain medication, sent my wonderful Mother on her way home and I rested and eventually went to bed.

I actually slept pretty good with very little pain. I got up on Thursday, helped get the kids ready for school, Mike took Maggie and on his way home, got me some Starbucks and 2 movies, The Help and Flight. I enjoyed my coffee, napped, watched the movies, had left over spaghetti and took a shower. Pretty much a repeat on Friday and starting to back down on the pain meds. On Saturday, although it was FREEZING outside, we ventured out to Costco, then went to Mike’s mom’s house and had dinner with her. On Sunday, no pain meds at all and I did all of the laundry, cleaned up our den, swept sand off the driveway, and had a big ole bowl of mac and cheese for dinner. I probably did a little too much, but I took something before bed and rested pretty good. I went to back to work on Monday feeling pretty good, just a little slow but feeling better every day! 

I go back for a follow up in a couple of weeks and can’t wait to talk to the doctor about what happened with my IV. I’m sure he will not find it as humorous as I have.

Back In Full Swing With Big News!

Okay, so I’m back after a little hiatus. I am back with big news too! Over the fall and holidays I made the decision to have gastric bypass surgery. It was a huge decision to make and it was made with a lot of thought. It’s a lifestyle change and the surgery is just a tool to help me lose the weight I need to lose to be healthy for me, my husband and kids. I’m no spring chicken and my kids are young and I need to stay healthy so I can keep up with them. Right now, I’m fairly healthy, but am on the verge being a weight induced diabetic. I’m 42 and it’s just a matter of time before my health starts to deteriorate because of my weight. One of the benefits of losing weight and being healthy is the part where I actually enjoy shopping and sprucing myself up and actually feeling like I look good. Another benefit is I won’t feel like the fat wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, etc that I feel like right now. Most importantly, though, I want to be healthy and I want to be 100% for my family.


Some of the things I dream of as a skinnier, healthier me....running in the early morning hours before the kids get out of bed and before I have to get ready for work, riding bikes with the kids on nice, sunny days, not being tired all the time, I want to run circles around the kids instead of them running circles around me!

So that’s my big news. I am in the process of getting all of my doctor’s appointments made that are required by insurance and my surgeon’s office. We are going on vacation the end of May and I’m hoping to have everything done by the middle of April so my surgeon’s office can submit it to insurance and I can get approved (God willing) and then I’m shooting for the surgery to be mid-late June.

Hello

Hello!  I will return to blogging soon.  Getting myself organized. 

See ya! 

Fall is Finally Here!

I've been waiting on this since April when it quickly soared into the upper 80s in the deep south!  This is my favorite time of the year.  The air is so crisp, there's no humidity, and this this is also the time of year that produces great storms, although some can be dangerous and we've had some pretty deadly tornadoes this time of year. 

After I picked the kids up yesterday afternoon, we walked down to the creek where there is a walking path and it's just lovely.  That kind of sounds like I'm a little granny saying "it's just lovely".  The kids love walking down there, but I have to wait until the mosquitos are gone because they like us sweet girls way to much for my liking.  Now that it has cooled off, I'm sure we will be walking down there more often.  Here are some snapshots I took yesterday.